A must do in Sofia city - hike the Vitosha mountain.

There is no other Bulgarian mountain so accessible as Vitosha. They have even named the main boulevard after her. It is indeed a hidden gem. Everybody can see the mountain from the city center, but how many dare to visit...

As usually I was on a mission in Sofia. It is a place of business for me. The nearest city within EU from my bug out property in Serbia. This time I was looking for work in the Austrian alps for this winter. Within a week my mission ended with a great success and I was promised the job. Being a full time travel blogger would be a dream come true, but unfortunately this vision is yet to be materialized - if ever. Needles to say however that even as a side hustle it isn't that bad after all. My blogging activity paid more or less for my food on my Latin American journey.

Autumn was officially kicking in and on my last days in Sofia I wanted to take full advantage of it. Too late for a bigger trip somewhere in Bulgaria I was satisfied with a day trip to Vitosha. It is nearly so close as visiting a city park. One needs to take metro and a bus 66 to reach hotel Moreni - the last station.

I wasn't the only photographer in town that day. What looked like to be the last warm day of the year, attracted other people with full size cameras too. In fact I was testing my new camera myself this day. A second hand Nikon 5100 - also bought in Sofia. Not being a photography newbie I knew what to expect from the machine and I could go straight to manual mode if needed. For pictures like these however an autumn mode did the job just fine and I was able to focus more on composition than the settings for each photo. There is nothing wrong about using automatic or semiautomatic modes. Only tricky light conditions require manual mode to be mastered for best results.

I personally prefer Vitosha in the winter time as it becomes more of a playground. Snow gives it another level of danger and fun. This time however it was perfect for a little walk and camera test.

I didn't had a fixed plan for where to go. The main goal was to capture some nice pictures of course. I was actually hoping for some clouds to be covering the top of the mountain. That wasn't the case and for this reason it still looks more or less like from a summer hike. It can get cold however even at this time of the year and I chose to stay on the safer side and did not venture that high and far.

I have met crazy characters on Vitosha before and it wasn't any different this time around. One person stood out the most - an Indian man in a dress wearing flip-flops. He asked me to take picture of him with his phone and I gave him advice on where to go with his equipment - or the lack of it. Believe it or not, but once back down in my hostel, suddenly the Indian man walks in with to check in. I was shocked but happy to see him in one piece and so I asked him how far he managed to go. It wasn't far at all, but he seemed to enjoy it, which is the most important thing...

I think my first official camera test didn't end up a failure. Stick around for more articles and reports to come as I am on my way to a new country on my "visited" list.

All the best,

Global Local